(2004/C 84 E/0746)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0716/04

by Luis Berenguer Fuster (PSE) and Anna Terrón i Cusí (PSE) to the Commission

(10 March 2004)

Subject:   Radio alarms

The problem of jamming is increasing exponentially due to the spectacular growth of the private security sector, and particularly sales of radio alarms, with security firms competing to under-price, so as to obtain the largest share of the market, ignoring the fact that alarms are security systems.

Does the Commission intend to take any steps to regulate this sector, so as to plug the existing legal gap?

Answer given by Mr Liikanen on behalf of the Commission

(19 April 2004)

As the Honourable Member points out, the market for surveillance services that is offered to the public is growing. These services are competing on both quality and price aspects.

The Commission is, however, not aware that there are currently problems with the quality and reliability of such services that are attributable to congestions in and/or jamming of the radio frequency spectrum that they use.

This issue was discussed with Member States in the context of Directive 1999/5/EC (1) (the R&TTE Directive) in September 2000. At the time, it was judged that additional regulations to protect specific applications such as security alarms from harmful interference and to ensure access to emergency services were not necessary as it was deemed that market forces would already ensure this.

The Commission however intends to raise this issue again in the next meeting with Member States, scheduled for June 2004, so as to assess whether recent developments would require the Commission to reconsider the matter.

Furthermore, the Commission is currently studying the harmonisation across the EU of conditions of use of the radio spectrum for short-range devices including security alarms. Part of this analysis will consider how best to enable the effective operation of such devices via agreed technical parameters and appropriate radio spectrum frequencies.

(1)  Directive 1999/5/EC of the Parliament and of the Council of 9 March 1999 on radio equipment and telecommunications terminal equipment and the mutual recognition of their conformity, OJ L 91, 7.4.1999.